Temps dropped here, so being free for the weekend, I headed down Saturday, to the Ocala National Forest to camp out.
I did not think it would be all that cold, so I did not use a tent. I pitched a tarp on the shores of Hopkin's Prairie, and settled in. There is a burn ban in effect, so I ran a 'cold' camp. It got down to 46F, so I was wishing I had brought at least a sleeping bag.
After a light meal, and a book, I turned in at dusk. Not long after full darkness, the dang coyotes started howling. This side of the lake answering the other side.
Finally, they settled down, and I went off to sleep. Somewhere around 5 AM, I awoke, to some noise coming from the trail. Reaching for my Springfield .45 Auto with the Surefire 300 attached, and I lit the place up.
A pretty hefty coy dog was about 20 yards away, checking me out. I grabbed a stick and threw it. That, and a loud whistle scared him off.
Managed to get another hour of sleep before getting up and breaking camp.

When gun season opens in November, I am going to go back there, and kill that sucker. and his brothers and sisters.
oh, this is the campsite.

The moon at dusk

Good story.

I would feel the same as you about going back with my rifle.

Cold in Florida?

You have seasons on coyotes? WTF is up with that?

I hope you aren't under that snag sleeping when it makes a big sound.

only good thing about 46 in FLA is the snakes tend not to be to energetic I would think.

We don't have seasons on coyotes. I'm sure he's speaking about whatever hunting restrictions there are on that portion of the National Forest he was in.

Correct.

no season, per se, they are 'game' all year. However, in the National Forest, there are times when you cannot hunt stuff.

It is odd to see something called forest and it being pancake flat.....odd to see.

Hmm. I guess I understand. Doesn't make much sense, as we aren't used to that. I should look into our state forest land, it may well be the same. But if their is no season on varmints, why would the forest be closed to hunting?

Is it closed to shooting at times too IE target practice?

Learn something every day.

BTW the moon pic is way cool.

yes, the forest is closed to all shooting period, excepting only the State of Florida controlled hunting. There is a Federally owned rifle range in the Forest, but other than shooting there, you can[t even discharge a .22 at a tin can.
These are joint rules between State and Forest Service.

Wow. I'd be tempted to call that socialist or communist rules. I thought Florida was a bit more old time school than that. We own it but we can't use it. Typical.

But I bet you can camp, ride ATV in areas, fish etc... all year long....

But it is what it is as they say.

Jeff

Rost, National Forest = Federal land. They make the rules and the States just manage it.

I checked Texas National Forests and they have their own special rules different than regular State land. In Sam Houston National Forest and Angelina NF, you have to have a USFS permit to hunt does in the National Forest and you have a 1 Buck bag limit for the entire season. Florida National Forests have no season bag limit. Must be communist rules to only allow 1 buck for a whole season.

In Caddo National Grassland, you have to have a permit to use a crossbow to hunt hogs. What's up with that?

Some of the rules you have listed only apply to the WMA's which are managed by the state inside the NF, but not the entire national forest. The Angelina for instance has the Bannister WMA which is only 25,000 acres give or take ( I don't have a map handy but I cruised 100% of the timber on it one summer) out of 140,000 acres for the entire NF.

The 1 buck deal isn't a big deal because a portion of the NF falls in 1 buck counties (yes 1 buck total) and the rest are 1 buck of 13" spread or over and 1 with a spike on one side - for a total of 2 bucks. It's not like they are 1 buck on NF and you get 5 bucks in the rest of the county.

Doe permits are free and they never run out you just have to pick one up. They may have changed the rules since I last looked but they used to count as a tag as well so you didn't have to use your hunting license doe tag. That may have changed since I last looked as it was discussed between the USFS and TPWD all the time.

Outside of the Sam Houston the 4 national forest in TX get about zero hunting pressure, mainly due to the 1 million acres available for $48 to hunt adjacent to the NF without the hassle of locked gates during season...and the fact no metro areas are nearby.

I own 50 acres landlocked inside the Bannister WMA and I've never seen another hunter in the past 15+ years during season. I also own 50% of a much larger tract that adjoins the Angelina and I've never seen anyone on the other side of the fence - EVER lol. During the whole time I worked for the USFS I think I ran into 4 hunters and 1 of those was a duck hunter.

Just saying out of those differences the only one that matters is you have to pick up a doe permit before season starts.

So you're claiming that there are no unique hunting rules in any Texas National Forests outside the WMA's?

So USFS doe permits are only required in the WMA's, not in the rest of the Forestry land?

And how does the rules being only in the WMA's (which I highly doubt) negate the point anyways? Rost is claiming Texas don't do that kinda stuff. Apparently they do, but you're claiming on in WMA's.

You're just looking to argue. Whatever your points are sure as hell don't help Rost or invalidate mine.

It's stupid as hell to compare hunting regs on Federal Land in different states. That's the bottom line.

46F??? Cold??

What the krap you gonna do if it gets cold??

Oh...that's right! You're down there where they haven't learned to count!!

Not looking to argue, just pointing out for instance no reason to say you are restricted to 1 buck on the national forest when the county you are in to begin with is restricted to 1 buck anyway etc...

OK, but that only proves my point that it's silly to compare different regulations in different states. Not being able to hunt Coyotes year round in some National Forest WMA in Florida, may be strange to a Texan, but so is having counties which are obviously rural, because they have big ol' National Forests in them, with single buck yearly bag limits to a Floridian.

You won't find a single county in Florida bordering a National Forest, that has a 1 buck bag limit. See how it's crazy to compare?

Cold is relative, a subject that you are probably intimately familiar with.

Cool campsite. I take it the mosquitos aren't bad down there at those temps, of did you have to be covered in bug dope?

actually the mosquitoes were not an issue at all. Just a dab of 100% DEET behind each ear took care of them.

Y'all are dry then. I got chased out of our shooting setup a few days ago sighting in a rifle, the mosquitoes were so bad. I moved out to my truck tailgate in the sun. We have had so much rain the past two months, the bloodsuckers have had a nice hatch.

That campsite looked like chigger city. I am still scratching Big Jim and the twins just from looking at the pics.

Hope you get those yotes!

Foxbat, the coolness, not the moisture was responsible for the low 'skeeter count. Where my Son has been bow hunting, it's so bad that he wears a theromcell as well as a full bug suit.

Crowrifle, no chiggers, but my faithful, long suffering wife has pulled off about 20 ticks so far. Dang!

Thank god, Florida isn't much of a chigger area. I used to fear going into any high grass in Tennessee in summer/early fall because of the chiggers and ticks. I've never picked up chiggers [knock on wood] in Florida in my life.

Commie rules is right. The whole thing is a big racket by the mob (government). Laws, rules, etc. Break one and you get to pay up. There are so many, you can't know them all. A big game where some get paid and some get to pay.

Dang I missed out on all the fun.

I guess my point was really, its federal land, IE ours to start with. And as such, why should it be closed to shooting at any point in the year.

I realize our state forests have different limits on deer than private, thats not at all what I meant, what I meant is, as far as I know, you can shoot a coyote 24/7 365 on our state forests, and you can target practice or plink year round also. Coyote being non game. Shooting being not hurting a thing. Heck I could even go with only shoot year round in specific areas, but to be closed to shooting period sounds socialist to me for sure.

Doesn't mean we don't do things like that here in TX either at times. But I certainly don't agree with them. And on hogs or coyotes here, most all I know would shoot them on sight on any of our lands, and none of us would bother to complain, we'd thank the shooter, even if it was on his way to work in the morning in our pasture kind of thing. Even though thats technically illegal. Don't really know of a warden that would push the issue either.

I certainly agree with you that it should be 365 days a year. That's why I hunt on private land, so I can hunt every day if I so choose.

When I read your first post it sounded... "less than fun" but I figured, more power to him. Now... I seriously have to question if you are feeling OK.